Tag Archives: Script

Resetting Windows Update on Domain Joined Computers

Scripts and Scripting, , , ,

Windows Update & WSUS have been a thorn in my side for many many years. When it works its great but when it doesn’t it can be very frustrating to figure out what went wrong. Over the years I’ve had to rebuilt WSUS twice, once when it just stopped pushing updates and another time where it imploded itself and corrupted the database. Recently we had a number of computers, around 10%, stop reporting back to WSUS for status. They also reported no updates available when checking for updates using WSUS. We tried all the troubleshooters, DISM cleanups, etc, but nothing seemed to work. I thought maybe it was WSUS again but that wouldn’t make sense with so many successfully getting updated. Even tried the Microsoft recommendations on resetting Windows Update but in our case BITS didn’t want to stop. And related to this we were getting Task Host errors on shutdown for those machines with the reason being “AutomaticUpdateHost” which would make sense if BITS was stuck.

After some testing we found that the Microsoft recommendations did work when in safe mode. Problem was doing this as easily with the least amount of downtime and hands on touching. To that end I created a series of three batch files. The first one, run as a administrator, will set the boot options to safeboot with networking and reboot:

bcdedit /set {default} safeboot network
shutdown -r -t 5

The second is most of the Microsoft recommendations along with others I’ve found on the internet:

@echo off
 echo Stopping Windows Update and BTIS services…
 net stop bits /y
 net stop wuauserv /y
 net stop appidsvc /y
 net stop cryptsvc /y
 echo Killing any windows updates in process
 taskkill /im wuauclt.exe /f
 echo Deleting some files…
 del /s /q /f "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Network\Downloader\qmgr.dat" del /s /q /f "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Network\Downloader\qmgr.dat"
 del /s /q /f "%SYSTEMROOT%\WindowsUpdate.log"
 rd /s /q "C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution"
 rd /s /q "%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\Catroot2"
 del %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp* /s /q
 for /d %%x in (%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp*) do @rd /s /q "%%x"
 del %systemroot%\Temp* /s /q
 for /d %%y in (%systemroot%\Temp*) do @rd /s /q "%%y"
 echo Reset the BITS service and the Windows Update service to the default security descriptor.
 sc.exe sdset bits D:(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;SY)(A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;BA)(A;;CCLCSWLOCRRC;;;AU)(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;PU)
 sc.exe sdset wuauserv D:(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;SY)(A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;BA)(A;;CCLCSWLOCRRC;;;AU)(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;PU)
 echo Deleting registry keys….
 reg delete "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate" /v AccountDomainSid /f
 reg delete "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate" /v PingID /f
 reg delete "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate" /v SusClientId /f
 reg delete "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate" /v SusClientIDValidation /f
 REG DELETE "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update" /v LastWaitTimeout /f
 REG DELETE "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update" /v DetectionstartTime /f
 Reg Delete "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update" /v NextDetectionTime /f
 echo Re-registering Windows Update components…
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\atl.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\urlmon.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\mshtml.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\shdocvw.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\browseui.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\jscript.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\vbscript.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\scrrun.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\msxml.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\msxml3.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\msxml6.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\actxprxy.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\softpub.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\wintrust.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\dssenh.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\rsaenh.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\gpkcsp.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\sccbase.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\slbcsp.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\cryptdlg.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\oleaut32.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\ole32.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\shell32.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\initpki.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\wuapi.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\wuaueng.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\wuaueng1.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\wucltui.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\wups.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\wups2.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\wuweb.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\qmgr.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\qmgrprxy.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\wucltux.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\muweb.dll
 regsvr32.exe /s c:\windows\system32\wuwebv.dll
 echo Resetting Winsock…
 netsh winsock reset
 echo Resetting WinHTTP proxy…
 netsh winhttp reset proxy
 echo Resetting the services as automatic…
 sc.exe config wuauserv start= auto
 sc.exe config bits start= delayed-auto
 sc.exe config cryptsvc start= auto
 sc.exe config TrustedInstaller start= demand
 sc.exe config DcomLaunch start= auto
 echo Restarting services…
 net start bits
 net start wuauserv
 net start appidsvc
 net start cryptsvc
 net start DcomLaunch
 echo Telling Windows to detect updates…
 wuauclt.exe /resetauthorization
 wuauclt.exe /detectnow
 wuauclt.exe /reportnow
 PowerShell.exe (New-Object -ComObject Microsoft.Update.AutoUpdate).DetectNow()

Then finally once that runs through is the third batch file to set the computer back to a normal boot:

bcdedit /deletevalue {default} safeboot
shutdown -r -t 5

I put all three into a folder and placed it on the desktops of the troubled computers then ran each in sequence. First the computer rebooted in safe mode, then Windows Update gets reset along with deleting all temp files, then the computer reboots normally.

So far every computer this was run on has reported in. Not sure what causes this in the first place but at least we have a quick solution now.

Note: The script was written to be run in regular mode so its stopping services that are normally already stopped in safe mode but was just reused for this purpose on the machines where BITS kept getting stuck.

Batch Converting Visio VSD files to VSDX

Programming, , , ,

I use Visio for my network and building layout drawings for simplicity. We have recently upgraded to Visio 2016 from 2007 and along with that there is a new file format, a .vsdx instead of a .vsd. Now I’m not sure of all the behind the scene changes but I do know that when you check a files properties you can reduce the file size by removing unused shapes, remove personal info, and save your old files as the new format. Between these three options the file size will drop 40 – 70% per file. Now when you have hundreds or even thousands of these you can gain a significant amount of file space back along with quicker overall loading and saving times. The problem is this looked to be a manual process.

So I did some searching and of course others have already tried to script this. I found two main articles, one on batch converting the vsd to vsdx and a second on removing the unused objects. I combined the two into a single script and added in the remove personal information option. So now you can do all three with a single script.

This is in VBA so to use this start out by opening a new blank Visio drawing. Hit ALT+F11 to get into Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications. Right click your drawing on the top left (by default Drawing1) and insert a module. Then copy and paste this in:

Sub ConvertToVsdx()
 Dim strPath As String
 Dim strFile As String
 strPath = "C:\Temp2\"
 strFile = Dir(strPath & "*.vsd")
 Do While strFile <> ""
   If Right(strFile, 3) = "vsd" Then
     Application.Documents.Open strPath & strFile
     Application.ActiveDocument.RemovePersonalInformation = True
     ' Loop through each master then check across pages to see if it is used
     Index = Application.ActiveDocument.Masters.Count
     While Index > 0
       bMasterUsed = False
       Set oMaster = Application.ActiveDocument.Masters.Item(Index)
       For Each oPage In Application.ActiveDocument.Pages
         For Each oShape In oPage.Shapes
           If oMaster.Name = oShape.Name Then
             bMasterUsed = True
           End If
         Next
       Next
       ' if Not used delete it from the document stencil
       If bMasterUsed = False Then
         oMaster.Delete
       End If
       Index = Index - 1
     Wend
   Application.ActiveDocument.SaveAs strPath & strFile & "x"
   Application.ActiveDocument.Close
 End If
 strFile = Dir
 Loop
End Sub

Change the strPath to the directory you want to run this on and hit F5 to run. It will open each drawing with a vsd extension in that directory, set the remove personal information tag, remove the unused objects/stencils, then save it as a vsxd.

I haven’t adapted it to do subfolders yet as this is all I really needed but I’m sure there is a way to iterate through directories.

Kixtarter – KiXtart Script Editor

Scripts and Scripting, , ,

KiXtart is a free-format scripting language written by Ruud van Velsen of Microsoft Netherlands.  Many companies have used KiXtart as there login script processor although as time goes by people are switching to purely GPO’s or VB script.  I personally still use it for my login scripts, it’s easy to understand and simply to deply.  Just copy a exe to each machine through GPO and edit your users profiles to run the exe and script at login.  In fact I was using it so much that wrote a KiXtart script editor with color highlighting of the keywords, a insert menu with all the commands, and some wizards for commonly used things.

The last update brought the software to v4.12 and will most likely be the last version released.  Download it here:

Kixtarter v4.12 – KiXtart Script Editor Installer

EDIT: I’m still using this program so I made some optimizations to it and brought it up to targeting the .Net Framework 4.7 as the old one was still running on 3.5.  This is now considered v4.13 and is the newest version:

Kixtarter v4.13 – KiXtart Script Editor Installer